Airbus - a joint venture between European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) and BAE Systems - has secured 149 confirmed orders for the A380 from 14 customers, including 11 passenger airlines.

Airlines have taken options on a further 100 planes.

Airbus chief executive Noel Forgeard said he expected sales of the A380 to comfortably exceed 250, the number required for the huge aerospace project to break even.

He said Airbus hoped to sell more than 700 of the aircraft and was in talks about selling the plane to China.

"We'll sell a lot more than 250. We'll sell 700 or 750. You know it is a plane which will fly for 30 or 40 years," he told RTL Radio.

Big is best?

By building the plane - with development costing about $11bn (£6bn) - Airbus is banking on demand for large planes offering cheaper seats between the world's major cities, experts say.

We shall make a family photo; something like this will never happen again